I believe I am part of the liberal center. Those of us here, do not care one iota about whether we are “white” “black” Native American or Asian. We don’t care if we pray to “God” via the Torah, various permutations of the Bible, or Koran. If we sing chants to lord Krishna or Buddha, meditate in Taoism or do a Druid dance, or have no God, that is fine too. Speaking other languages gives us an opportunity to learn nuances of language, different from our own whatever that might be where ever that might be. We are accepting, even embracing and we are all able to get along with each other perfectly well.
But what about the frosted flake fringe? Those afeard of this and that. The Nation of Islam, the KKK, Moral Majority, those who cheer Katyusha rockets on their way to an unsuspecting village in Israel, those who want every Palestinian, Arab and Moslem dead, those who want pogrom, holocaust, ethnic cleansing, “racial” purity, those who want to kill for God, in the name of God or because they do or don’t believe in God — who are they?
They all attack liberals and liberalism and never claim to be liberal, yet some of them look like some of us to some degree, they supposedly pray to the same god(s) as we do, if they pray. They also speak different languages at times. However, as we in the liberal center understand all too well, the frosted flake fringe doesn’t get along with each other or with us. Why is that? They seem to call themselves “conservatives” nationalists, right wingers, opus dei, orthodox, or fundamentalists. The women in such groups frequently “know their places” and mind their tongues, parroting opinions given to them. Any one not a part of their group is an infidel, heathen or untermensch, or just some kind of enemy.
These is the same frosted flake fringe that has generously given humanity hundreds of millions of premature deaths through the millenia, and slavery, wars, NAZIs, facism and Stalinism, oppression, ignorance, burned the libraries in Alexandria and Constantinople, hunted the !Kung for sport, created reservations and Basutolands, and shelled the Buddhas of Bamiyan while people starved.
Those of us in the liberal center wouldn’t tolerate a rabid wolverine in a kindergarten, why are these types tolerated? What can we do about them? Is there any doubt about them being the problem in the way of humanity’s ascent. It seems that the planetary problems facing humanity, would be easy to solve were it not for them, with the possible exception of global warming. Why do we need their nations, races, militaries and purity for god? I don’t know any liberals who need or desire nationalism, racism, militarism and purity for God, although we discuss those topics. So, what does the frosted flake fringe do for the redwood forests, the elephant or manatee? Can anyone tell me what they do for themselves, besides complain about taxes, that paid for the roads they drive on, and refugees turned into immigrants? Is there ANYTHING?
I was just telling my wife a story about how my coach would pray for victory in the locker room before our public school football games. I was almost angry at this because I always imagined the other team also trying to invoke Gods will against us. Like God is going to choose a side in a frivolous competition that has nothing to do with Him. As I’ve grown older and hopefully wiser, my anger at this concept has grown. The world claims that God is on their side when they have nothing to do with God.
Bush:
Said that his faith informs his decisions as president. He says, for example, that he prayed to God for guidance before invading Iraq.
Obama:
On Internet-fed concerns about his religion, in particular whether he was a closet Muslim.
“I am a devout Christian. I have been a member of the same church for 20 years. I pray to Jesus every night,” he declared at an earlier appearance in the rural southern Ohio town of Nelsonville. He said he wanted to halt “confusion that has been deliberately perpetrated.”